Happy New Yeahs!

I try a lot of new recipes for anything from cookies to pasta and roasts, but I feel like half of the time I spend cooking I'm trying to replicate something my mom or grandmother has been making for the last 25 years or more… and it never comes out the same.  No matter how many times they give me the vague, inconsistent description of the recipe ("Aaaayy… I don't know how much salt I use. Enough.  that's how much.") - It never comes out the same.   BUT, most of the time it does come out different in a good way, so I can't complain.   I'm pretty sure it's their way of getting us to come back home regularly, but anyways, my first post is dedicated to my mom - Sherry's New Yeah's Day Lentils.
It's an old school Italian tradition to eat lentils on New Year's day-  It's said to bring wealth and good fortune in the New Yeah' (as Rhode Islanders were refer to it).  I don't know about wealth, but I can attest to the good fortune, I guess.  All I know is that for the last 27 years, I've spent hours every January 1st sifting through pounds of lentils for the mysterious pebbles that could chip someones tooth, supposedly, before the cooking can begin.  My sous chef gave them a quick look through today and I trust his pebble locating abilities so I think we're good to go.   Here's what we'll need:

1 lb Lentils, thoroughly sifted and rinsed well
About 1 lb Hot Italian Pork Sausage (3 Links)- squeezed out of the casings
The Holy Trinity:  Onions, Carrots and Celery
1 medium onion, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
3/4  cup of carrots, chopped - I used baby carrots so I don't remember how many that ended up being
Olive oil
2 Tbsp Tomato paste
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt and Pepper, obvi
4 cups of chicken stock 
4 cups water
2 sprigs Rosemary (optional)
2 Sprigs Thyme (optional)
2 Bay leafs (optional)

Cook and prep time combined: About an hour

I used my new, handy 5 QT dutch oven for this but Sherry's been using a regular massive soup pot for forever so either will do.  Heat up the pot on medium heat with 2-3 Tbsp of olive oil.  Once the oil is hot, I add the onions, celery and carrots with a little bit of salt and sautee them for 4-5 minutes.  Once they soften up a bit, I add the sausage by squeezing the meat out of the casings like a tube of toothpaste, and then discard the casings.  Brown the sausage for about 5 minutes, until no longer pink, breaking up the big chunks with a wooden spoon - so it almost has the texture of ground beef.   Then I add the tomato paste and garlic, cooking for another 2 minutes.   Then add the chicken stock, water, lentils and herbs (which I put in my new spice ball that my sous chef got me for Christmas so you don't have to fish out leafs and stems after- this thing is awesome:  Spice Ball ).    I set it on medium high to get the liquid almost boiling and then I put it down to low heat to simmer with the lid cracked for about 35 minutes or until the lentils are tender, but not mooshi.  Then season with salt and pepper and hot pepper flakes to taste - I probably use almost a teaspoon of salt.   It should have an almost stew consistency.

Serve with some grated Romano cheese and a crusty piece of Italian bread, and bring on the good fortune!  

Next up:  The first crusty Italian bread recipe that I've tried with the new KitchenAid mixer.   The lentils were done 2 hours ago and the bread dough is still rising, so I guess that will be served with the leftovers!